Hi everyone!
Since I'm visiting my family soon I've been charting all your information which I am really grateful for. My father always wondered where his middle name "Tait" came from and knew there were a lot of James Taits and other Taits in the family but not why. I think it would have tickled his fancy to know about Helen Tait who never bothered to get married.
Just in case I haven't mentioned anything I know here is the info I can give you summed up:
- following down the Andrew Bowie (1827-1888) and Margaret Byers (1829-1898) line:
son James Tait Bowie (1852-?) m Mary Best (1860-?)
I have always heard talk of THREE SONS:
James (I don't know if he was number 1 or 2) who married and has descendents living in the north of England, still Bowie by surname, the only males with the surname from this branch
Thomas who didn't marry, and I think was the youngest
-
Andrew b.1894 or 1897 m Lily Fraser Douglas (b. c 1897 Appletreehall, Hawick, d. c 1973 Hawick)
my GRANDPARENTS
three children, the second was my FATHER, James Tait Bowie born Hawick 9th August, 1928, in the living room of his house, with his umbilical cord firmly round his neck (a so-called blue baby). Passed away 17th Nov 2005.
Sorry if I don't fill you in on his siblings and descendents, it's for a question of privacy as I don't have their permission as of yet. I always visit the graves of my family every year and must remember to note down all the dates mentioned on them for you.
I am very vague about the well, and will get its position for you when I'm back but I know it was in the old part of Hawick (Wilton was at the time a separate parish) and I believe my mother still has a print of an old photo of it. For me it fits in with John Bowie - William Bowie - Walter Bowie line, who founded the blacksmith/ veterinary surgeon line of the family which runs without interruption until the last blacksmith, my grandfather Andrew Bowie, passed away from lung cancer from his forge in 1947, and my father James Bowie, veterinary surgeon with a great ability to shoe a horse, passed away in 2005. My son, also James, dreams of becoming a vet without me every having filled his head with family stories, so perhaps the line carries on.
My aunt had vague knowledge of a Walter Bowie, blacksmith (the words horse shoer and farrier also crop up) of Cavers in the 1750s (but doesn't remember if this is a birth or marriage date), I would guess him to be the same Walter Bowie, horse shoer, who lost his child in a "bouie" 12/11/1792. Could he be an uncle of William Bowie (b. 3rd May 1772) and brother of John Bowie? (only news I have of him is that he married Christina Watson and they produced William). The dates fit, the family occupation fits.
I am tickled pink by the vast numbers of illegitimate children, though I think it could be interesting to look into old Scottish marriage law, which was dying out by the late 1800s but probably survived in extremely rural, cut off areas like Hawick. There was a law whereby cohabitation would lead to the couple being socially considered married as may have been the case with Helen Tait (who seems to have been true to her man) and the prolific Elizabeth. I found this explanation on the web:
"Until recently in Scotland, there was a form of common law marriage called 'marriage by cohabitation with habit and repute'. The theory behind this law was that if a man and woman cohabited as husband and wife in Scotland for sufficient time and were generally held and reputed to be husband and wife and were free to marry each other, they would be presumed to have consented to marry each other and if this presumption was not overturned, they would be considered to be legally married. This form of common law marriage has now been abolished by the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006 which came into force on 4 May 2006."
I can't find a legal explanation for the intersting Edmondson marriage where Richard's son John married his father's half sister - any chance she was really a STEP sister (the two terms get very confused in some documents, if she was a step sister she was no blood relation and therefore could legally marry her "nephew").
I get so sad when I see all these poor parents losing their children young. Thanks heavens for modern medicine.
I have a couple of other things but will put them in other messages or I will dae yer heids in!
Jane
